SENATE minority leader Franklin Drilon yesterday questioned what he said was the seeming speedy release of P10.6 billion out of the P19-billion budget of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC) amid calls from a number of senators that its annual appropriation be realigned to augment the government’s COVID-19 response.
The senator smelled something fishy with the haste by which the funds were released.
“Due to the demand to realign the anti-insurgency funds, there is a clear haste in the releases,” Drilon said, adding: “Where did the P10.6 billion go? What barangays? What cities and municipalities have benefitted from it? In the spirit of transparency, let us publish the data and inform the public,” he said.
Drilon said he was informed that the NTF-ELCAC submitted its expenditure report on Monday “to Senate President Vicente Sotto III, Sen. Juan Edgardo Angara (Senate finance committee chair), and Sen. Panfilo Lacson (Senate national defense chair) but has yet to see a copy of it.
Despite this, Drilon said it is important to see where the budget was spent.
Citing data from the Department of Budget and Management, Drilon said total fund releases for the NTF-ELCAC has already reached P10.68 billion as of April 2021, of which P7.75 billion was downloaded last month at the height of strong criticisms against the task force for red-tagging community pantry organizers.
Drilon said: “The release of the budget was apparently rushed. Why is it that the release of the budget for Marawi rehabilitation is taking too slow?”
The NTF-ELCAC has a P19-billion budget under the 2021 General Appropriations Act, of which P16.4 billion will go to its Barangay Development Program wherein 822 barangays will receive P20 million each to sustain efforts in keeping their areas insurgent-free.
He said the task force’s program received P3.14 billion in March, and another P7.54 billion was released last month, for a total of P10.68 billion.
Drilon has been calling on Malacañang to realign the NTF-ELCAC budget to the government’s pandemic response.
“Defeating the virus and addressing the effects of the pandemic such as unemployment and hunger should be our priority. There are 62 percent Filipino households who experienced hunger due to COVID-19 pandemic. There are 4.4 million Filipinos who lost jobs in 2020. Yet, the government is giving priority to NTF-ELCAC’s anti-insurgency program rather than use the funds to expand ‘ayuda,’ buy vaccines and feed the poor,” Drilon said.
A number of senators have said they would push for a “zero” budget for the NTF-ELCAC when they hold the budget deliberations this year, saying the money for the task force is being wasted in paying for the allowances of Lt. Gen. Antonio Parlade Jr., whom 15 senators want to censured over his “stupid” remark against lawmakers who wanted to defund the task force.
Parlade has likewise taken the heat for red-tagging organizers of community pantries, which have sprouted all over the country as a community initiative to help families who have lost incomes and jobs due to the lockdowns imposed to control the spread of COVID-19.
